StarCraft AltaVerse
by WJ Foster
Summary: A Umojan marine is infested and used for evil by the Swarm. Now, he wants the Swarm to pay.
1. Ch 1 Rude Awakening

I was once a person, just like you. Well, I guess you're a person. After all, I'm not anymore. I used to me a marine for the Umojan Protectorate. I was part of an expedition to a planet called Jarban Minor. I'd tell you what the expedition was doing, but that's highly classified.

That's not the point though. The point is what happened during the expedition.

"We'll arrive in Jarban within a day, Commander," navigation officer Zates reported.

I looked to the commander's face to see relief spread across it. It was rare when you could lead an expedition across enemy space and not have any issues. In fact, the Umojan Ruling Council had been rather harsh on Commander Russ. Four of his last five expeditions had resulted in utter failure. Old age, they surmised. I'd heard rumors that this was his last chance before they put him out of commission--forced retirement. As his First Officer, it was my duty to put these rumors to rest with the crew. They were uneasy as it was.

"That's good." Russ said, the relief apparent in his voice. "Captain DuPonte, keep tactical teams ready for anything, and have the science team prepped and ready for our arrival."

"Of course, Commander," he said with a nod to the communications officer, who began relaying the orders. Before he'd finished, a siren erupted in the bridge. The lead tactical officer called out, gaining everyone's attention.

"Energy readings indicate multiple warp signatures, Zerg in origin!"

Now, while a ceasefire had been called between the Swarm, protoss, and Dominion, there was no such truce with the Protectorate. The Swarm was our enemy.

To cut a long story short, we were attacked. Some of us were killed. Most of us, like me, were infested.

I didn't know I was infested. At least, not at first. I spent several years hovering between sleep and waking, like that space you're in when you feel you're falling, then wake up. Only, I couldn't wake up. Not fully. There were brief moments when I'd wake up, but the images I saw were horrific.

My arms, disgustingly mutated by the Zerg mutagen, ripping people apart.

Landing on planets full of families knowing that the Zerg were going to ravage them--rip them apart.

In the beginning, I was a grunt, nothing more than a zergling. Most of infested terrans, like my brothers-in-arms, were disposable. I was different. No matter what situation I was ordered to be in, I survived. It took years, but I eventually rose through the ranks. The mutagen slowly augmented the miniscule amount of psionic potential in me. The Protectorate had detected it within me, of course, but I barely registered on their scale. Certainly not enough to be made a ghost.

I actually found out way later that this dramatic of an augmentation is almost literally impossible.

But back to the main point. I was soon a general of sorts, second-in-command of my brood. I was mainly commanded to handle the brood's more psionically capable foes.

I'm not exactly sure why, most likely because of my slowly growing psionic potential, I became a little more aware every day.

One day, one of my more lucid days, I stood on the edge of my hivecluster and observed the barren red moon we were on. It's landscape was covered in hills, permeated often by deep valleys. The voice of my brood's leader, Kor, rang out in my mind.

 _SEEK OUT THE GHOST WITH THE BLUE HAIR. TAKE HER LIFE FOR THE SWARM!_

I wasted no time. I commanded and overlord to my side, along with two zerglings and two Hunter Killers. We climbed into the overlord's ventral sacs and upon my command, he took to the skies.

Locating the ghost was no problem. Psychics have a way of detecting one another. I could feel her psionic imprint. She's powerful. As I felt us getting closer, I ordered the overlord to keep low, so as to avoid detection. Visually, of course. I was far more powerful than her and could shield myself. When we were on the other side of a small mountain range from their camp, I had the overlord deposit is in mountains, where we'd be hidden. The zerglings took off, scouting the camp.

I sat in waiting as I sent in the swift zerglings. In almost no time, I saw a campfire in the zerglings' eyes, a Umojan marine and medic, along with the ghost, circled around it. As they got closer, I noticed something weird--the three of them were sitting perfectly still. But that didn't last long.

The marine rolled on to his side, pulling his rifle. A _pop pop_ erupted from his firearm, ending the first zergling. The ghost was on her feet. The fire behind her, her black silhouette contrasted with the flow of her blue pony tail in the wind.

As the second zergling lunged at her, she rose her hand, gathering psionic energy above it, then brought the psionic energy slamming down, killing the zergling instantly. She whipped around to see the marine fighting the hydralisks. One shot two spikes, both deflected by the ghost's powers. Those same powers help to propel her, as she jumped across the fire to her teammate's side. The medic was hanging back, waiting to be needed. The marine had just enough time to pull out his gun and with another couple rounds, put the hydralisk out of commission. He was then thrown to the ground by the force of a spike, shot by the other hydralisk. Their medic jumped to action, kneeling beside the marine as the ghost turned to engage the other Hunter Killer.

She's used quite a bit of her psionic energy, and was probably exhausted, as she pulled out her gun, and fired once, twice on the hydralisk, then jumped out of the way as it fired back. As I drew nearer to the camp, I realized the first hydralisk wasn't dead.

He had just enough life left in him to fire a spike into the face of the medic.

The ghost realized immediately, and destroyed the standing Hunter Killer with a psionic slam, and fired into the dead body of the other, just to be sure. She called out and and turned to face me, as I allowed her to sense me. We made eye contact and both froze.

For one moment, one long, antagonizing moment, I woke up as I stared into her face I knew that face. I'd looked into that face a million times. I joined the Umojan Marine Corps with face. Her face--Tera's face--the face I loved.

"D-Damien?" She asked, a quiver in her voice. I blinked, but I couldn't move. I felt like I was fading, about to lose control. And I did. I blacked out, and the next thing I knew, Tera and I were kneeling on the ground, her hands placed on either side of my head. She was absorbing my psionic energy and using it against me. I could see through the pain for a moment and even with what was happening, a chill ran down my spine.

My hand was buried in her chest, wrapped around her heart. The pain in my head grew and grew until I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes to see a large expanse of stars stretched out above me. My body was weak, and my head ached worse than I could ever remember. Then it came back to me.

 _Tera!_

I jumped over to her, and knew immediately that she was dead. Her chest was a void and her eyes were blank, staring into infinity.

I grabbed her body and held it close to me, an ever tightening pain growing in my chest. I did this--I killed the woman I loved.

Suddenly, I came to another realization. My head was clear. Pounding, but clear. My thoughts and actions were my own. There was no voice in my head, ordering me to return to the hive now that my mission is complete. I looked down at my arms--still infested.

Somehow, Tera removed my connection to the Swarm. She freed me.

Looking down at her body, I came to a resolution, a renewed sense of purpose. I would use this body and the powers that came with it.

I will take down the Swarm.


	2. Ch 2 An Old Friend

StarCraft: From Within

Chapter Two: An Old Friend

"Wake up!" Tera screamed in Damien's face as his eyes opened. Alarms sounded all around them. Even in the dim glow of the emergency lights, he thought she looked amazing.

"Time to get up, Lewik! It's the zerg."

She didn't need to say anymore. He jumped up, grabbing his rifle that was propped up against the wall next to his bunk. They ran out of the men's rooms in the barracks and head toward the Deployment Station, where he would get fitted into his CMC power armor. As they navigated the halls, she briefed him.

"The zerg we were sent here to eradicate found us and started hitting hard. Several overlords suddenly swooped over the camp and started dropping zerglings, hydralisks—you name it."

"Suddenly swooped over," Lewik repeated as they entered the Station and the workers started directing him to a machine. "How do zerg 'suddenly swoop' over a military base in the middle of the desert?"

She gave a shrug as he stepped into the machine, then watched as his body was covered with armor. When the process was complete, he stepped down from the platform.

Between them, Lewik was first out the door. Everything went from order and quiet to absolute chaos instantly.

Outside, zerg and terran forces were clashing nonstop. Just in front of them, a terran in his skivvies was fighting a zergling, who pinned him to the ground, until Tera's telekinesis threw the thing off. Just a few yards away, two ghosts were surrounded by a couple zerglings, a hydralisk, and a hovering mutalisk. And just beyond that, a medic was wrapping a bandage around a man's arm. He kept pointing at the battle like he wanted to get back to fighting.

Ghosts in the Protectorate had a habit of protecting each other before all others. So, Lewik wasn't surprised when Tera leapt into action to save the other two ghosts. Turning, Lewik saw a group of marines with a pack of hydralisks tearing down on them, and decided to run over to them and started firing, taking down a hydralisk that was replaced by two, then another that was replaced by three. The marine to his left was taken down by a spike just as the hydraklisks were in range to slash at them. With a quick jump and roll backward, Lewik was able to get away from the monsters' grip, but the others were not so lucky. With the hydralisks a meter away, Damien felt his heart go cold. Then this golden-haired beauty drops in from the sky. She lifts her hands, and brings a wall of psionic energy crashing down, killing the four hydralisks. She whipped around and smiled at him as she spoke.

She said, "Guess that's another one you owe me, D," and she winked.

From the clifftop nearby, Lewik sat and stared, forcing the tears in his eyes back. Down below, white-clad Umojan marines pulled a large black bag from a truck. They were taking her body away. Tera. She'd saved him from the Swarm and to repay her, he ripped her still beating heart from her chest. Damien was frozen in place, watching as they zipped the body into the bag and loaded it into the truck.

As the doors shut behind the marines and the door started to drive away, the realization of what had happened truly hit him, and he stood up.

"NO!" He told himself out loud. "You are _not_ to blame for this. The Swarm is." He hadn't realized it, but he started pacing.

"I'm going to take down the Swarm. But to do that, I need a plan. Well, first things first, I need an army." Then a great idea hit him.

"I'll use the zerg to take down the zerg. I need a drone."

Closing his eyes, Lewik stretched his mind and sensed for the nearest zerg. It didn't take long. A small group of zerg nearby were fighting each other. Two zerglings were fighting while a hydralisk turned on the last drone in the group, after having just killed one. Damien supposed his disconnection to the brood caused some issues. He was right in the middle of the chain of command.

Taking control of them took no effort.

 _Calm down!_ He ordered mentally. He wasn't close enough for them to hear his voice. _Find a nearby spot for our hive cluster. Signal me when you do. Protect the drone with your life._

And he headed for the nearest resource-rich spot.

Eventually, he met up with the small group of zerg and looked at his numbers.

"One drone, a hydralisk, and two zerglings stood in the middle of a clearing near a patch of minerals and one vespene geyser.

His stomach (what was left of it) dropped when he saw the faint vespene filtering up. The geyser wouldn't last long—he'd need another spot. Without vespene, he'd be limited on which units he could create.

"Oh well," he said with a sigh, then turned his attention to the drone. "Morph into a hatchery, there," he commanded, pointing at a spot close to the mineral patch. The drone silently glided to the spot, planted itself in the ground, and began the process. The other zerg moved slightly closer, having been ordered to protect the drone with their lives.

It only took a couple minutes for the sinewy skin of the drone to expand as the creature within started to swim furiously in the green liquid inside. It grew larger and larger over time, until the skin burst and a hatchery stood where there was once a drone.

Then he waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, a larva found its way out of the hatchery walls and lay on the ground, barely moving in the layer of creep that started spreading from the heart of the hive cluster.

"Mutate into a drone." He said. The larva's skin stretched similarly to how the drone's did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Again, a minute or two passed until the cocoon split open and a drone hovered in it's place. That is, until it was ripped to shreds by glaive wurms shot from mutalisks above. The wurms continued to pound his hive cluster, and although two mutalisks were killed, they easliy destroyed his forces.

He could tell that Niadra controlled these creatures. She wanted him back under her command. He turned and ran as fast as he could, but even his zerg-enhanced speed wasn't enough. The mutalisks drew closer and closer.

He saw something then that almost stopped him in his tracks—a viper, flying straight for him. Something about this viper though—it didn't seem hostile. Behind it was an even larger wave of mutalisks than the one chasing him. When the viper was right overhead, it used its long tongue to pick Lewik off of the ground and a man's voice rang out in his head.

"No need to worry," it said, "you're safe. My zerg will protect you."

As the viper and a small group of the hydralisks took him off into the distance, he heard the sounds of the zerg fighting behind them.

After nearly twenty minutes of flying, the viper finally set Lewik down in the middle of a fully functional hive cluster, complete with a hive, a spawning pool, spire, and lurker den. The only thing it was missing was an ultralisk cavern. All of the zerg went about their tasks completely ignoring his presence.

"Ah," a voice said behind him—the same voice that spoke to him before.

He was an infested terran. One super long limb on the left side, where most of the mutation seemed to have occurred. His eyes burned red below the bill of his army hat, adorned with a star between a pair of lightning bolts, set above a skull with wings.

"Who are you?" Lewik asked.

"I," the man replied, "am Alexei Stukov."

That name sounded familiar.

"What do you want with _me_ , Alexei?"

"Please," he replied, "call me Stukov. You look just like her, you know. But that's not a surprise."

"What are you talking about?" Lewik asked.

"Why, the Queen of Blades, of course."


End file.
